The Daily Pilgrimage

Fourth Lesson

This Jerome was born at Venice, of the Patrician family of the Miani. He was trained up to be a soldier, and in the most troublesome times of the Commonwealth, he commanded the fortress of Castel-nuovo at Quero, in the mountains near Treviso. After the fall of the place, he was chained hand and foot, and cast into a filthy prison.

When all hope of help from man had forsaken him, the most blessed Virgin, in answer to his prayers, mercifully came to him, loosed his fetters, and brought him unhurt within sight of Treviso, through the midst of the enemy, who kept all the roads. As soon as he entered the city of Treviso, as an acknowledgment of the favour he had received, he hung up his chains, which he had brought away with him, at an Altar of the Mother of God, to whom he had vowed himself.

After his return to Venice he gave himself up to godly works. Amid his great tenderness to all the poor, his compassion was chiefly roused by the fatherless little boys who wandered through the city starving and filthy; them he took into an house conducted by himself, where at his own cost he provided them with board, lodging, clothing, and a Christian education.

Fifth Lesson

In those days there came to Venice blessed Cajetan of Tiene, and Peter Carafa, who was afterwards Paul IV. They were pleased with the spirit of Jerome, and with his new Asylum for Orphans, and took him to the Hospital for Incurables, as well to bring up Orphans, as to extend his charity equally to the sick. Soon after, by the advice of the same, he went to the mainland, and built orphanages first at Brescia, then at Bergamo and Como.

His chief foundations were at Bergamo, where besides an orphanage for little boys, and another for little girls, he opened an house of Refuge for repentant harlots, being the first institution of that kind in that part of the world. In the end he went to dwell at Somascha, a hamlet in the district of Bergamo, close to the frontiers of the Venetian territory, and there made an house for himself and his disciples, and gave shape to a congregation, which is generally called the Congregation of Somascha.

This congregation grew and spread, and found its work not only in the education of orphans and the service of Churches, but also in a wider usefulness to the Christian Commonwealth, by training up lads in letters and good manners. Holy Pius V. enrolled it among the religious Orders, and other Popes have given it divers privileges.

Sixth Lesson

Jerome went to Milan and to Ticino to gather orphans together, and in both places he gathered a multitude of little boys for whom the charity of noblemen enabled him to provide board, lodging, clothes, and schooling. He returned to Somascha, and, still making himself all things to all men, refused no toil by which he saw that he could be of any use to his neighbour.

He was used to go about in the fields, helping the reapers in their work, and meanwhile teaching them in the mysteries of the faith. He was very patient in cleansing and healing the heads of little boys foul with lice, and proved so successful a physician to the stinking sores of the poor country-people, that he got a reputation for having the gift of healing.

He found a cave in the mountain which hangs over Somascha, and there he would hide himself, passing whole days without meat or drink, and oftentimes scourging himself, continuing in prayer long into the night, and taking his short sleep upon the bare rock, in expiation of his own sins and the sins of others.

In the far end of this cave, there drippeth out of the dry stone some water, which is said by an unwavering tradition to have come there at the prayers of the man of God. It droppeth freely even to this day, and is taken to divers places at a distance, where it often hath an healing effect upon the sick.

At length an infectious disorder broke out in all the valley, and Jerome, who nursed the sick and carried the dead to burial on his own shoulders, caught it, and died a precious death, as he had himself foretold, in the fifty-seventh year of his age, and that of salvation 1537. He was famous for many miracles, both during his life and after his death; Benedict X. solemnly enrolled his name among those of the Blessed, and Clement XIII. inserted it in the Kalendar of the Saints.

Seventh Lesson, St. John Chrysostom on Matthew 19

Wherefore did the disciples rebuke them that brought them? From an idea of His dignity. What therefore did He? To teach them to be lowly, and to be above the niceness of the world, He took the little children, and embraced them in His Arms, and declared that of such is the kingdom of heaven, as also He had said above.

And we also, if we would fain be heirs of the kingdom of heaven, let us seek with great earnestness this virtue. For this is the highest peak of philosophy, to be simple and wise: this is the life of an Angel. The mind of a little child is free from all the diseases of the mind: a little child keepeth no remembrance of injuries, but goeth unto such as have inflicted them, as if unto friends, and as if nothing had happened. Although his mother give him stripes, yet a little child ever seeketh her, and putteth her before all.

Eighth Lesson

If thou wert to show him a Queen adorned with her crown, he would not prefer her before his own mother, in raiment how faded soever, and he would rather see her, albeit unkempt, than the Queen in all her glorious apparel. For his use is to account of things whether they be his own, or of others, not by the standard of poverty and riches, but by that of love only.

He seeketh no more than he needeth. When he is satisfied with milk, he leaveth the pap. The things that press upon us, such as the loss of money, and the like, do not press upon him, nor do the same transitory things that please us, please him, neither doth he gaze with admiration at loveliness of shape. Therefore Christ said: "Of such is the kingdom of heaven," to make us do by force of will what little children do by nature.

Ninth Lesson

The Pharisees' usual springs of action were spite and vanity; therefore doth the Lord everywhere command His disciples to be simple, and in teaching the one, pointeth silently at the other class. Nothing breedeth pride so much as princedom and precedence.

Since, then, His disciples were to receive much honour throughout all the world, He warneth their minds beforehand, and letteth them not stumble into the snare of men, nor go seeking for honours from the mob, nor put themselves forward before others. It is true, these may seem little things, but they give occasion for very great evils.

It was when they were placed in these positions, that the Pharisees fell into their direst misfortunes: from looking for salutations, and foremost or good places, they got into a keen desire of distinction, and from that into ungodliness.